Pincham Says Crime Victims Get Burned While Politicians Fiddle

Illinois Appellate Court Justice R. Eugene Pincham livened up an otherwise earnest memorial service for crime victims Wednesday evening with one of his typically charismatic and witty addresses.

He gave no further indication of his intent to run against Cook County State`s Atty. Richard M. Daley next year, something he has strongly hinted at in the past.

Instead, the judge, who ran into controversy when he suggested that blacks who did not vote for Mayor Harold Washington should be hanged, lashed out at what he called the ``partisan, political rhetoric`` that obscures the issue of crime.

He called for the mandatory re-education of jailed offenders and for state funds to help crime victims.

The service, part of Washington`s ``Chicago War Against Crime Week,`` was held at the University of Illinois-Chicago, 750 S. Halsted St., and was attended by more than 500 crime victims or victims` relatives.

Washington turned up briefly to introduce the event and Pincham, whom he described as ``a man of tremendous wisdom and compassion.``

Amid the songs, speeches and blessings, it was Pincham who stood out as the star attraction.

In a speech peppered with anecdotes from his experiences on the bench, he raised laugh after laugh as well as fervent murmurs of approval at his more serious comments, underlining again his popular appeal.

The results of a survey conducted earlier this year by the Black Independent Political Organization showed strong support for Pincham to challenge Daley, and Pincham acknowledged that he had not ruled out the possibility of running.

But he had strong words for the politicians Wednesday evening, whom he blamed in part for Chicago`s high crime rate.

``Politicians run for office saying they`ll do something about crime;

then when they get elected, all they do is raise taxes and keep people in jail longer,`` he said.

``But the criminals that attacked you didn`t ask you to fill out a questionnaire on your political beliefs beforehand. Crime is not a partisan issue, and the problem is that it is treated as such.``

Lack of basic intelligence on the part of criminals was also to blame, he said, citing a case recently brought before him in which a young man tried to rob an old man at a bus stop with a 10-inch knife.

The offender could have tried to deny having the knife, or to deny that he wished to rob an old man who was obviously broke on a busy street, he said. ``But instead he claimed he was using the knife to clean his fingernails.``

He called for the mandatory re-education of convicts, saying no one should be allowed to leave the penitentiary without a high school degree. But now, he said, most offenders ``come out bigger crooks than they were when they went in.``

Addressing the crime victims, he urged them to organize themselves to campaign for state funds to help victims.

``I do not want you to think I am an expert on how to solve crime,`` he told his audience.

But, he added, after cataloguing his 36 years` experience as a lawyer and then judge in Chicago, ``I can assure you. . . . I do know a little bit what I`m talking about.``